The Missing Link
by A.N. Clara
Summary: Alfred, a new intern, begins exploring an underwater cave after a mysterious body washes ashore that's believed to be a new species - one closely related to humans. Once he's inside, Alfred discovers an entire civilization under the sea, and a particular specimen he can't take his eyes off of. Biologist!Alfred X Fishman!Arthur, USUKUS. Rating will change to M in the future for smut
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Instead of working on the fifty other stories I have going at the time, I started a brand new one that will update even less frequently. I hope you guys enjoy!

I'd like to thank OutToGarden for her collaboration on all the science-y aspects of this story, including parts yet to be written. I'm trash with genetics. You keep that up, asshole, and you'll deserve the updates to come out more quickly.

Warning: sad themes including infant death (of the nonhuman variety)

* * *

This was bound to be the greatest discovery of the century - if it was the real deal, Alfred thought as he examined the autopsy report of the unidentified specimen in front of him. As promising as it looked, he was skeptical of what the body that was carried into the lab earlier that week could be, though he was excited regardless of how it turned out. Rarely was anything too exciting brought to their attention, as the more famous marine biologists snatched up all the good findings before they even had the chance to know about them. Not this time. They didn't think this was worth their time or effort, assuming they would have to debunk yet another rumour. Alfred prayed that this was different.

Alfred knew that working for this lab was a good idea. He hadn't had any experience outside of college and nowhere else wanted to employ him, so he took the internship here, unsure whether he would like it enough to stay. Worse case scenario, he could always return to college and change his major, or specialize in something else. It's not like being a marine biologist had always been his dream, but the whole astronaut thing would never work out... This was definitely a sign that he made the right decision.

He paced along the corridor, back and forth, as though awaiting the birth of his first child. Alfred wouldn't know anything about that, being a single homosexual, but he felt the same anxiety, the same nervous energy associated with the arrival of a child. One time he stopped to flip to the next page like he would pause to light a cigarette. Apart from that, however, he never ceased the continuous rounds. He muttered to himself about the impossibility of it all.

 _It has to be a fake. It has to be a fake._ Alfred looked up from the paper, which made his glasses slide down the bridge of his nose. He had thought he heard someone coming. No one rounded the corner on either side of the hallway. _Hurry up. This is important._

The body washed up on a beach in the south Pacific several days ago and had consumed his thoughts ever since. He never believed in any of the mermaid sightings cropping up around the country, especially the most recent ones that were the result of a "documentary" on a television channel Alfred refused to name, but this was different. What came in this time was hardly similar to the fairy tale creature Alfred grew up believing in; it was barely even humanoid he heard, which made it far more exciting. He heard about the how the grotesque thing was a twisted hybrid: half man, half fish, but not quite the way you would expect.

The entire team was always thrilled by the prospect of a new species being discovered, even if it wasn't with their lab, and this was huge for the marine biologists because the specimen was, in fact, fairly similar to that of a newborn human. When it first appeared on the beach, the police were called, as it was assumed to be a tragic occurrence of infanticide. Once the morgue had a look at the corpse, however, it was determined to be something entirely new and was then shipped to Alfred's place of employment. He hadn't had the opportunity to look at it yet, but from what he gathered from the report in his hands, they had a lot of work ahead of them.

This was beyond newsworthy. Alfred knew that the story of how an entirely new species - one that looked eerily human - was discovered would be on the front page of every major scientific magazine in the world. He might even be quoted, and he had an idea of what he would say when they asked for his input. _I didn't make the find, of course, but I did help. My team led the autopsy, which is totally a huge deal._ Alfred was ready to become scientifically famous.

A pair of footsteps echoed through the empty hall. When Alfred looked up again, one of his coworkers was walking toward him. A serious man called Berwald stopped several feet away, grunting in place of a greeting. He wasn't really an outspoken kind of person. Alfred said "hey" and continued reading the line he was on.

"What do you think?" Alfred asked him.

The intimidating blond stood several inches taller than Alfred, which was strange. Alfred was accustomed to being fairly tall compared to others, so standing next to the Swede made him uncomfortable in a way he couldn't describe, not even to himself. Berwald was very nice and equally as shy, however. He was also a great scientist. Alfred supposed he looked up to Berwald in more than one way, and then laughed at his own cleverness.

"I don' know. S'mething new."

"But do you think it's, like, a mermaid, or something?"

Berwald shrugged and readjusted his glasses. He flipped through a few pages of the report Alfred handed him. "When do we get the DNA results?"

"Soon. I've been waiting since yesterday. It's driving me crazy, dude!"

"Give it time," Berwald said.

He was far more patient than his American friend. Secretly, Berwald was prepared for it all to be a hoax; another primate torso sewn to a fish's tail. He didn't allow himself to get excited about anything just yet. Hopefully Alfred isn't giving his hopes up, Berwald thought, and passed the file back to him, not exactly enthused about what he had read. Nothing about it really surprised him. Had Tino, his very close "friend", not written it himself, Berwald might have thought the report was falsified. He was still reluctant to believe it was true.

"Do you think they'd let us take a look at it?"

Berwald didn't even have to answer as the other blond biologist, Tino, approached them with a smile in place. He was cute, but not Alfred's type. "Hey, guys! We're releasing the specimen now."

"So?" Alfred began excitedly. "What is it?"

"I dunno. You'll have to see it for yourself. I couldn't believe what I was seeing."

That made Alfred even more giddy. Tino was like a genius to him, and the biologist leading the autopsy, so if he didn't know what it was, Alfred had better be excited. The possibility of his lab reporting on a new species had his head spinning. They'd get to name it and everything! He had several ideas that would immortalize his favorite super heroes (if Smaug got a lizard, Superman totally deserved whatever the hell this was). And if that didn't work, _he_ always had a fantastic name, so he thought, and it would definitely become famous if he didn't.

Alfred, Berwald, and Tino walked to the part of the lab where the creature was being kept. There was a glass wall separating them from whatever it was, and Alfred cursed his bad eyesight, for even with glasses he couldn't make out anything from the blob on the medical table. He pressed his face against the window until his nose went flat, but whatever it was, it didn't look like much more than a tangle of seaweed. With panic rising in his chest, Alfred reopened the report and began trying to match up structures that were identified in the file. The creature was so small and far from him that he couldn't even tell its head from its tail; at least, the paper said it had a tail.

"You can't see much from here," Tino said, though that was obvious. "The rate of decay was high and there isn't much left _to_ see. You may take a closer look if you want. I can walk you through my findings."

The American biologist nodded his head rapidly, wanting very much to keep his dream alive. He never dreamed that a new intern would get to see the creature up close. Tino pressed the 6-digit code on the keypad to grant him access and followed Alfred through the door. He looked back at Berwald with a shy smile that told Alfred something was going on between them. It wasn't any of his business, but he'd be sure to meddle in their affairs later.

"Do you want to see it too?" Tino asked.

"No. Maybe lat'r."

Tino blinked at him and Alfred also wondered why he wouldn't want to witness the greatest discovery ever made. Berwald was an intimidating guy, though, so neither of them asked for his reasons. The shorter blond knew that he was a bit squeamish around dead things, especially those that were more rot than anything else, although he wouldn't tell Alfred that. The door slid shut behind them and he could have sprinted to the table he was so excited. What he saw made his heart sink.

"What the fuck is this?" The creature was nothing more than a butchered lump of flesh and bones from what he could see. Alfred was disappointed to say the least.

"Uh, yeah... He doesn't look too well, huh?"

Tino explained what bad shape it had arrived in, how every incision he made only made it worse, and took the report from Alfred's hand to outline what they had found. He showed him what was left of the "tail", which was a set of legs that ended in fins comprised of a plate of fused metatarsals, as well as the elongated tarsals and phalanges of a human infant. The broad area between the toes was webbed. A thick skin covered these appendages, though it was difficult to tell due to decay. There were no scales as Alfred had hoped, even though he knew that a mammal would most likely not have them, even after thousands of years of evolution.

"I know it doesn't look like much, but all of these bones have a lower density than a human's - like a porpoise. They're more pliable so the increasing water pressure doesn't affect them."

 _Or they're brittle. It could have been premature_ , Alfred thought to himself. He didn't want to give his hopes up just yet, though it was fairly obvious that this thing wasn't human.

The hands were structurally comparable to the feet, with long, webbed fingers. They ended in sharp talons that Alfred wouldn't want aimed toward him in any situation. He cringed at the thought of trying to give birth to the clawed beast. What if the infant was born with those things? No matter what, the mother had to have a difficult time with a child such as this. Even if the nails grew out later, nourishing the newborn would be a struggle. Alfred knew little about human breastfeeding, but he heard it hurt sometimes. And that was with a helpless little thing that didn't have any sharp protrusions.

"Just look at those things!" Tino said in amazement. "He can't be human with claws like that."

"What if it's just a birth defect, dude? It wouldn't be the first time someone threw their kid in the ocean because they were different."

Tino was prepared for Alfred's skepticism. "He doesn't have a nose either, or ears."

Alfred pricked up at that while Tino smiled. "C'mon, don't leave me hanging like that!"

Tino laughed, "Okay, I lied, but they're not human, defect or otherwise." He ran his finger across the page, trying to find the line with the information he wanted. "Here. He has narrow ear canals on either side of the head, though functionality is limited, if functional at all. I haven't been able to determine if his species is hard of hearing, or if they have other means of detecting sound. I think they may be similar to dolphins in that they 'hear' via the lower jaw."

Where Tino pointed out the ears, Alfred saw tiny openings but no shell, just like he had said. The rest of the face was unrecognizable as anything that was once living; torn to shreds and melting away with rot. At least the worst of it was covered by bandages. He made a disgusted expression. The poor creature looked about as good as it smelled, like spoiled milk and three day old fish guts. Alfred ignored the urge to pinch his nose.

"His nasal passage did not look like it had opened, but that appears to be their initial method of respiration until the gills around the ribcage have matured. I believe that is the cause of death. No water was found in the lungs, so he couldn't have drowned. He just... couldn't breathe..."

There was a patch of flesh on the lateral left side of the true ribs that had stayed in place throughout all of this. A few slits in the skin were the only visible indication of gills, though still no scales. Alfred knew just by looking at them that they wouldn't function, properly or otherwise, even if it was still alive. Tino needn't confirm that, but he did, making sure to cover his bases. Alfred nodded, lost deep in thought.

Alfred's stomach churned unpleasantly. "You keep saying 'he'."

Tino continued to look down at the body. He was frowning. "Ah, yeah. They have retractable genitals like many undersea mammals, or, I guess, mammals in general. This one is a boy - a newborn."

He spoke of the baby as though it were his own. It broke Alfred's heart. Tino was a rather sensitive guy, like a fragile flower, and he must have had so much sympathy for the little guy lying on the table. Alfred did too. There were plenty of children in his life that made his entire chest ache to imagine any one of them ending up in a place like this. Of course, that wouldn't happen, though something similar could.

A bandage was laid across the infant's forehead so it obstructed the view of the top half of his face. Alfred was curious as to why that was. The rest of him was so badly damaged. He didn't understand what made the eyes so special.

"What about the eyes? What's going on there?" Alfred asked.

The shorter blond's brow furrowed. "It's very gruesome. There's nothing left to study of them; they were gouged out, eaten by fish, evidently."

Though disappointed they wouldn't get to dissect the eyes, he was having all sorts of other unpleasant emotions bubble up inside of him. Alfred loved all creatures and hated to see any of them in such a state as this, but this one was so similar to a human baby that he wanted to vomit. At a loss for words, he nodded, thinking about his little niece who was mere months old. Tino placed a sheet over the fragile body and the two biologists exited the room, their hearts heavy. Berwald was still waiting outside for them.

"Hello again," Tino said with a small smile. Berwald nodded his greeting.

Alfred shook off the feeling of dread and returned to work. "Okay, Tino, talk composition to me."

"The body was more than six percent fat, though it was very dense, like blubber, and I think it was closer to ten when all intact."

"That's higher than expected," Berwald cut in.

"Yeah! Aren't people like fifteen percent fat at birth or something? Sea mammals are, like, what? Five?"

Tino nodded excitedly. "Yes, that is about right. I don't even need the DNA results. I _know_ he's something new."

The three marine biologists threw around more statistics until the test came back with zero matches. Alfred leapt with joy, pumping his fists in the air until he was winded. He asked the million dollar question: how closely related are humans and these things? The answer shocked even him. The paper said 99.62% exactly, making Alfred's jaw drop. He waited for a few moments, allowing the news to sink in.

They expected anywhere from ninety-five to ninety-eight, but less than half a percent difference was unheard of. Chimpanzees were about a ninety-nine and a half percent match, and look at all the things that separated them from humans. It wasn't possible. Alfred refused to accept this as fact.

"That can't be right! That would mean -"

Tino cut him off, having none of his skeptical bullshit. "They're our closest living relative."

"It can't be true, Tino," Alfred insisted.

"They ran the test several times. It's correct."

Everyone of them stopped to contemplate what that meant. Alfred thought of the tiny corpse lying on the operating table, and then of his niece again. He could easily empathize with something that was nearly human. "Then where's his family?"

Berwald was more silent than usual. Tino's eyes grew wide, which made him look even younger, more childlike. They hadn't thought about that. Everyone was so busy determining if he was a new species that they didn't bother to wonder where he came from. He had a mother, and if she was like most mammals, she was still mourning the loss of her son. Wherever she was, there was bound to be more just like her and the deceased son.

This opened an entire realm of possibilities. Did these creatures live in a central location, or migrate? He imagined they didn't leave their homes often since a body had never been found. Then again, so much of the ocean had yet to be explored. Maybe they lived out so far and so deep down in the ocean that there was no possible way their dead could wash up on a beach to be found. Why was this the exception?

What was their primary food source? Most average people would scoff at this question, but they had no idea what a difference the type of fish or vegetation they ate made. If they preferred salmon, for instance, their tolerance for mercury would be high. That, or they would be dying off slowly from mercury poisoning. It would explain the defect in the newborn's nasal passage.

Were they nocturnal? Well, Alfred supposed this didn't really matter much. They most likely lived where little light penetrated through the water, so whatever. With the eyes missing, they didn't have even a single clue. For all the biologists knew, the species could be blind, their eyes having yet to evolve enough to disappear entirely.

How do they sleep? He wasn't too curious about that, though it would be interesting to find out. Alfred thought they would sleep like astronauts, taped to a wall, or something. _Haha, that'd be totally cool_ , he said to himself. He didn't clue the others in on his ideas. Alfred wanted the satisfaction of being right when they found out the answer and didn't want to seem stupid in front of his colleagues. Anyway, there were more pressing matters at hand.

Is there a hierarchy to their species, like alpha males or a queen? Alfred sure hoped so. How awesome would it be to meet the queen of a new species? It would be like holding a press conference with a real live alien, except this one would be from his planet. He wondered if there was a class that strictly worked for the colony, like bees or the caste system, and another that served only to govern.

The one thing Alfred really cared about was finding out if they lived in mating pairs. He wished he would discover that they were like penguins, taking one mate for the entirety of their lives. Alfred would never admit that he was a hopeless romantic. He wanted to believe that this new species had a concept of soulmates and would spend a lifetime trying to find The One. For whatever reason, Alfred was still looking for a special man to share his life with. That could wait. His work was the most important thing to him right now.

Alfred also desired to investigate instances of homosexuality - to use as evidence that his sexuality was valid and natural - within the population. Oh god, what if there was only one population? The train of thought that had been chugging along inside Alfred's head at a hundred miles an hour came to a screeching halt. He slapped a hand to his forehead, already worrying about a potential problem of the species he knew nothing about.

" _Fuck._ " Alfred hadn't had meant to say it aloud.

Tino and Berwald looked at Alfred like his nose had fallen off. They waited for him to explain his interjection when they themselves had been peacefully discussing salt water density. He didn't have the time to explain every thought that had raced through his mind in the past few minutes.

"Say there is only one population," Alfred began, unnecessarily gesturing a lot with his hands. "How do we stop these guys from going extinct without inbreeding them right into oblivion instead?"

The other two scientists' shoulders slumped. They were growing tired of Alfred's negative questions which seemed to have no answers, or at least, none that they wanted to hear. Berwald didn't even bother to respond. Tino crossed his arms over his chest for a brief moment, then uncrossed them, and placed his hands on his hips. He wasn't about to take that sort of attitude from Alfred, who was usually so unnaturally optimistic.

"I don't know, Alfred," he admitted. "I'd hate to see them vanish right after we find out they exist. We can't afford to think like that."

"Don't be so negative," Berwald said in a tone that reminded Alfred that he was a scary guy.

The latter shrugged. "I mean, you guys are totally right, but who says we're even going to find them? We can't look through the entire ocean with our current technology." Alfred was just feeling bummed out.

Berwald had his arms crossed and he didn't say anything to argue with Alfred's logic. He was right, after all. Tino wanted to stay positive, but the facts were undeniably sound. Not enough of the ocean had been explored to make him feel better about the prospect of finding the baby's family and all the others in their colony if there was one. He had gone from feeling so excited about the future to fretting about what it would bring.

"Where do we go from here?"


	2. Chapter 2

Alfred had never been so nervous in his entire life. This was worse than that time his mother entered him in the school spelling bee in 3rd grade, despite the fact that he couldn't spell to save his life. He thought he would throw up, he was so worked up, and that was his least favorite thing on the planet to do. If he survived that, Alfred could do anything (hopefully without tossing his cookies this time).

Everything was going to change today. He could feel it in his bones. That's why his hands trembled and his legs felt weak. Then again, he hadn't eaten anything that day and couldn't sleep at all the night before on the plane. It was a long way from California to Australia. Alfred had the feeling he wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight either.

Even six and a half years later, Alfred still felt like that terrified intern starting his first day in the lab. All of this was so new to him; to all of them. He couldn't help but to feel lost with no direction. They were entering a territory unlike any before, though it was similar to other explorations undertaken in the past. But that was the past, Alfred thought. This was the present, maybe even the future.

He thought about the baby every single day. It was something that would haunt him for the rest of his life, and he had accepted that a long time ago. Alfred saw him in his little niece, who was hardly very little at all anymore. He tried not to connect her with the corpse of the specimen, but he couldn't stop thinking about the future the baby could have had. All of it was silly, really. The specimen would not live life like humans do. It wasn't as though he was going to attend Harvard and discover an alternative method to nuclear fusion, or something, one day. Until more information was found out about the creatures like him, it was assumed they were just another species of animal. Alfred didn't understand how his life held any more value than an animal's.

They had found out more about them, the fish people. Well, Alfred called it "more", Tino called it "nothing". Berwald and the other members of the team remained silent on that matter. Even if they had a personal opinion on it, they didn't share what it was. It didn't matter what the information was. Truly, all it was was a guess. At this stage, they could only hypothesize and hope for the best. So, whether it was more or less was up for debate. Whatever it was, it lead them way away from home in the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean.

There was a little island off the coast of Australia that had been surveyed only a handful of times in recent history. It wasn't good for much else than being a resting spot for migrating birds, so it would make sense that an unknown species could be hiding below the surrounding water's surface. With eight thousand and twenty-one more islands within the continent's maritime borders, and only a handful of them explored by their team, Alfred sure hoped so, anyway. He didn't know how many more deserted, glorified piles of dirt he could travel to before he went mad. The last few didn't go over well, obviously.

Tino was a cheerful thing, even more now since he and Berwald got married mere weeks ago, so he took pleasure in the island hopping. He liked visiting all those new places, documenting snake populations and the like, and he honestly didn't care whether or not they found any sign of the fish people. Of course, if they did, he'd be the second to jump at whatever it was, right after Alfred. Berwald simply seemed to be along for the ride. The rest of the team hadn't been there as long, and they were still skeptical about all this "nonsense", which made Tino angry because they didn't believe his reports were credible. He was understandably offended by their presence alone.

"If we do find them, that will show them!" Tino often said. He never specified the difference between "them" and "them" in anything he did, as though he viewed the fish people and human beings as equals, or even the same thing. Berwald and Alfred always understood what he was trying to say regardless.

Everyone had seen the autopsy report and the pictures to go along with it, though that hardly made any difference to the team. All of the other "mermaids" had appeared very real in the lifeless likeness captured on film. This was no different at all to them. They likely thought Alfred and Tino, mostly the former, were incompetent. Perhaps they had let their excitement get in the way of reality and science. Had they bothered to actually read the reports, they might have had more favorable thoughts on the matter.

The trio set out earlier than the others. They didn't care much for wasting time investigating abandoned lands, especially after the last ones turned out to have no leads. Alfred was ready to see the island, determine if the fish people were here, and move on. Tino and Berwald let him run on ahead, perfectly content with taking their time on the island. It was like a free vacation except they still got paid for it, and they both loved their jobs, so it was a dream come true. They allowed Alfred to do all the hard work he wanted like climbing cliffs or trekking through thick patches of underbrush in the trees. He was like their child, even so many years later.

The thing about Alfred is that he was never careful. He preferred to live life like a race, speeding along as though he had little time left on the earth. This caused many accidents over the years. He received a concussion at the age of eight from falling on the wet tile around a pool because he couldn't wait the few more seconds it would take to get where he was going by walking. Sixteen hours and a hospital visit later, he still hadn't learned his lesson. Alfred probably could have ended up dead several times, but only sustained a couple broken bones here and there. He was as lucky as he was impatient. Fortunately for him, that luck was still with him.

Alfred found himself on a rocky surface that was riddled with large holes. Some of them were a basketball's size. Others, wider and longer than he was. He knelt to run his hand along the rounded edge of one of these openings and found there was some sort of cavern beneath him. Erosion alone could not have done this - at least, not like this. All of the holes were uniform in shape, circles or near rounded squares. Alfred was less than enthused. He didn't come here to discover an ancient lost tribe! That's what he thought he had found evidence of. He wasn't exactly wrong.

To continue on, he had to cross the rock. There was no other way around. Lacking the caution of the common man, which everyone knew was worrisome to begin with, Alfred began jumping across these mysterious holes to get to the other side of the stone bridge. Perhaps he should have taken the time to edge his way between them, but he didn't feel he should waste any more time than he already had. Halfway across, Alfred leapt toward a rather thin stretch of rock, not bothering to wonder if it would hold his weight. He landed on it, but it was too late for him to rethink his decision as the bridge became shards of rock beneath his feet.

" _Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!_ "

He managed to grab on to the edge of the hole before he fell through, most likely to his death. Had he a better grip, Alfred might have been able to pull himself out. At this moment, he cursed the pack slung across his back when it slipped from his shoulder, yanking his right arm away from the edge. It fell away, though it never made a sound to tell him when it hit the bottom.

"HELP!" he cried, though no one would hear him. "Help me! Someone!"

Alfred tried not to panic, but his other hand couldn't hold on much longer. The rock was too thick to get his entire palm around, so he was essentially dangling from a single hook his hand made. As he scrambled to regain his hold, legs flailing about under him, his fingers buckled. He plummeted into the unknown with a long lone scream.

Alfred hit the water below after what felt like an eternity of falling. His arms were reaching out for something to grab onto the entire way down, but it wasn't necessary, or possible. His fall was a straight shot to the underground lake over which he had been leaping across. He gasped in surprise, genuinely shocked that he was alive, but at the wrong moment. Water filled his mouth with its saltiness and then his lungs. Alfred began to panic before he could think about how simple it would be to swim toward the surface. He was frantically jerking about in a way that did not benefit him by any means. He was bound to drown.

Just as it began to sink in that he wouldn't survive long enough to tell Tino how he'd been careless so they would both have a good laugh, something bit Alfred's leg. At least, he thought it did. There was a sharp prick at several points on his calf and a decent amount of pain. He kicked harder, hoping to deter whatever curious animal took a nip at him. The jaws clutched onto him more tightly. Then another set of teeth latched onto side above his hip. Alfred prayed that he would go unconscious before these things ate him alive.

 _Only in fucking Australia_ , he thought, still trying to knock the creatures off with his legs. It was a matter of time before Alfred blacked out from lack of oxygen. His struggling only made it worse, further depleting the little he had to begin with. He was holding his breath, trying to prevent more water from entering, but it was getting harder by the second. He'd soon succumb to the inhalation reflex once enough carbon dioxide had built up in his muscles and organs.

The creatures began pulling him in the same direction and Alfred feared they were dragging him down. His vision would have gone black at the edges had he been able to see better in the dark cavern, so he was not able to discover that he was floating toward the surface, not away. He thought about all the things he had yet to do in his life, and was angry at these things that decided to take the future away from him. Alfred wasn't ready to die. Unfortunately for him, drowning was a long process, longer than most thought it took. His lungs may have felt as though they were collapsing and exploding at the same time, but he was still far from dead. A few more minutes and his brain would have irreversible damage, though he would still be alive.

Somehow, Alfred broke the surface several seconds later and was pulled away from the center of the cavern by the creatures. He spat and coughed and choked, but he still couldn't catch his breath. Alfred was now afraid he'd inhaled too much water, especially since the salinity was higher than he would have liked. Humans drown in salt water much faster than fresh, so he was scared. He was a marine biologist, not a doctor, and he didn't know how long he would suffer before death finally claimed him.

Alfred's hand brushed something. It was a ledge, smooth and flat enough for him to pull himself onto, submerged only a few inches inches the water. Whatever it was that had a hold on him before released him and he clammered to the rock on his hands and knees. He sputtered and gasped, trying to expel the water in his lungs. No matter how much he coughed up, it still felt like he'd swallowed the ocean in its entirety.

An unfamiliar hand grabbed on to his side. Alfred let out a yelp and he collapsed in the water in an attempt to get away. He scraped his shins hard enough that it drew blood. The owner of the hand let out a low hiss, similar to a child scolding another for talking during class. Alfred froze as the hand stroked his side soothingly. He was petrified by everything going on in this damned cavern. Whoever was touching him moved their fingers to his ribs, but became frustrated by the clothes that were in their way. They grabbed his shirt from either side and tore it away from Alfred's body, tossing it aside.

"Hey! I n-need that, asshole," he snapped and slapped the hand, knowing he would lose body heat twice as quickly when submerged. He gagged and began choking once more.

The other made a series of sounds Alfred would never guess were a reply. They ran their hands over his ribs again in a way that made him really uncomfortable. Whatever they were looking for, they couldn't find it, and Alfred sensed they were worried about that. They made more sounds that were like chirps and Alfred would have been intrigued (despite not being an anthropologist) had he not been so scared and still recovering from a near drowning.

"I didn't k-know p-people lived here." The other did not respond this time. "Why do you live in this fucking p-place? How do you g-get out?"

Their hands moved toward the gashes on his legs, probing the wounds with something sharp. Alfred yelled at them. That really hurt!

"If you're done h-hurting me, I n-need to go."

He thought they must have understood him, for they dove back into the lake. Alfred knew better than to try to stand and walk around when he didn't know how far this surface extended, so he crawled toward a beam of light that came from one of the holes above. It was a good thirty, perhaps forty feet to the surface. Alfred hoped Tino and Berwald would happen by and send a rescue team after him. Then again, the other had to know a way out of here. Maybe they would return soon.

The other found him only a moment later if the splashing was evident of their approach. Alfred wondered where they had gone and why. He was given the answer when the other began binding his legs with something slimy. It made Alfred squirm, but they made the hissing noise again, and he stopped moving. When he examined the one they had finished, he could see seaweed wrapped over his wounds. He wasn't sure if it made for a proper bandage. What other choice did he have though?

"Thank you for... whatever it is that you've done."

The other reached out to touch Alfred and he saw the inhuman hand pierce the light shining down from above. He screamed. They flinched at the sound, their hand pulled back from the visible field of his vision. Alfred's breathing became more rapid and labored. He did not know what in the hell had just touched him. That's when he realized that it had looked eerily similar to something he'd seen before, long ago. The baby flashed through his mind.

 _There is no fucking way, though_ , he thought. Alfred extended his own hand, hoping they would do the same. He waited for a long time, his breath still audible and echoing slightly off the nearby wall.

They overcame the fright Alfred had caused, and their arm came in to view once more. Alfred carefully took it so he could examine it more closely. The same webbed fingers and claws were present, except these were living, attached to a being that was still alive. That's what had "bit" him before. He pulled gently on the arm, praying they would move into the light where he could see. It was bad enough he wore glasses, and fortunate that they remained intact during his ordeal. Alfred couldn't see the other until they chose to let him.

"Please? I have to see you," he whispered. The other made some utterances, unintelligible things, or so he thought. They inched forward until their silhouette was distinguished from the background, and then until Alfred could make out the minute details of the face. And she was beautiful.

Her head was shaped like a human's and absolutely hairless. Perhaps more like Voldemort's, Alfred said to himself, noting her lack of a nasal bone so that two little slits replaced her nose. She also had no lips, as her face was a continuous, smooth contour of flesh. Alfred was cautious when he stroked her face so that he didn't scare her away. (He wasn't quite the Casanova with human ladies either) He couldn't feel the bones beneath because her skin was so thick. Tino had mentioned they had a layer of dense fat protecting them, but Alfred had guessed that was only for babies. He was often wrong.

She blinked, bringing Alfred's attention to her large eyes. They were black as night and luminous. Breathtaking, really. He had never felt more attracted to a woman (or any woman, for that matter) in his entire life. She tried speaking again. Alfred would never understand. So instead she felt his skin in return, making concerned little noises when she brushed his ribs for the third time. Alfred glanced down. Sure, her talons had hurt, but they hadn't done any real damage. Then he saw the delicate flaps that ran horizontally across hers and understood.

"Oh, I don't have gills. I breathe just fine. See?" He took some large breaths and exhaled loudly in demonstration. "Well, when I'm out of the water."

Alfred thought he saw her smile. They continued to explore each other's bodies until both were satisfied with what they had learned. She came to understand that Alfred was okay despite almost drowning and a handful of scrapes from the rock and her nails. He must have appeared to be someone like her that had gotten himself into some trouble. She was trying to save them and was concerned when there were no gills to be found. How strange Alfred had to seem to her. He could only imagine it was surprise greater than his own. At least he had an idea that her kind existed. Speaking of which, Alfred needed to get back to his humans.

"You're very beautiful, and I'd totally like to stay here forever, but I have to get out of here before everyone thinks I'm dead. Can you help me?"

She blinked at him. He traced the ridge of her cheek with his thumb. Alfred truly never wanted to leave her. He didn't know if he would ever see her again, even if they found the others like her. What was he to do? Well, he'd have to wait.

* * *

A/N: And so will my readers for the next chapter! An apology for OutToGarden.


End file.
